


The Tattoo of Imperfections

by Caliginous_Confused



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Hanzo has a brand on his left arm he wants covered, M/M, Mild Angst, Mild Strip Poker, Mostly Fluff, References to Depression, Tattoos, That's it, i think, like literally Hanzo uses it as an excuse to take off his shirt to show McCree his tattoo, like the reasoning for the tattoo is fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 05:25:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14709953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caliginous_Confused/pseuds/Caliginous_Confused
Summary: Hanzo Shimada had a tattoo on his right arm he wore proudly. He soaked in the attention that it brought to him as well as never hesitating to show it off. His left arm he hid in shame. It was a reminder of all the bad he had done in his life. That the clan he once called "family" had no concept of what a true family was. He found what family was through Jesse McCree, and looking in the mirror one day, he decided that he was going to erase the mark that scarred him, and replaced it with something he would be proud to have permanently on his skin.





	The Tattoo of Imperfections

Everyone always admired Hanzo’s tattoo across his right arm. Whether it was from fear, or respect to the meaning behind the tattoo – his ties to the Shimada clan - or simply liked it for what it was as a work of art. Hanzo didn’t mind the attention, in fact he basked in it. It was one of the reasons he only wore half of his traditional garb while he was on the battle field. Sure the mobility excuse was what he used, but using it to draw people’s eye to the tattoo was another reason.

His left arm was a different story.

He hid the arm at all costs. He rarely walked around base with anything less than a tshirt when he be more content wearing a tank top or going around topless. Especially while training. The arm itself was fine. On his shoulder however, was a scar more of a brand. The same sigil of the Shimada clan. He used to hold so much pride in the mark and wore it with pride. Now, the mark was a mark of shame, and he was ashamed on everything that it stood for. It was his burden to bear. A brand on his soul and skin.

Then, Jesse McCree showed up in his life.

If there was ever anyone that Hanzo Shimada would call the personification of acceptance and happiness, it would be Jesse McCree. Both of them had lived long and hard lives full of blood and pain, but where Hanzo decided to dwell on it and let it take over him in waves of depression and sadness, Jesse decided to let it better him; let it be his drive to do better in the world. They both had their rough days, but Jesse taught Hanzo how to laugh again, how to accept things as they were and to simply go with the flow, adapt when needed and enjoy the little things.

Hanzo never thought he’d be the one to fall in love. He was to marry out of convenience not affection or feelings. His marriage was supposed to be for the good of the clan, another simple business venture to expand the power that his family had. He’d never thought that laying with someone every night would fill his heart with such joy, or that kissing would sometimes be difficult due to how much he was smiling due to simply being in the arms of the one he loved.

Asking Jesse to marry him was something he never thought he’d have the nerve to do, and when Jesse said yes, he’d never been happier. Tears streamed down his face, and for once they weren’t because he was drunk on the anniversary of the worst mistake of his life, but because he couldn’t be happier.

Yet…

Yet every time he caught his own eye in the mirror as he was getting ready a pang of guilt hit him. He still bore the clans mark on his skin. He was never going back. Even if the family somehow clawed its way up from the rubble that was the fall of the Shimada clan, he would turn his back on them. Better yet, he’d take up his bow and summon the dragon’s forth to devour them. He'd be on the front lines to exterminate them once and for all.

He had told Genji about these feelings first, and the younger brother listened patiently, occasionally nodded as they both sat on the roof of the base, drinking their evening tea as they watched the sun set.

“Why don’t you get a tattoo of it bothers you so much?” Genji asked with a shrug. “It doesn’t have to be anything big or elaborate, but having something there that means more to you than the clan’s ownership over us seems like it would be the best solution. The skin is heavily scarred, but if you get the right artist it can be done."

Erasing the mark on his shoulder was something he wanted to do eventually. He knew it was going to be painful, and he knew the chances of it not being as neat and detailed as the one on his other arm were near impossible, but he wanted to see himself shirtless without being overwhelmed with shame.

Hanzo thought over what his brother had said, and he got the idea one sleepless night as Jesse was laying on his chest, his hands gently brushing through the man’s messy hair with the fondest smile on his face.

The sign Jesse had tattooed on his back right above the shoulder blade. He traced the mark with the lightest touch, not wanting to wake him as he made the decision. He was going to get the mark of Deadeye.

Genji was all for the idea and took it upon himself to look for the artist himself. Hanzo at many times offered to help but it was Genji who insisted he did all the leg work. He told him that he should consider it his early wedding present, then ran off before Hanzo could protest.

It took only a month for Genji to find someone he felt Hanzo would approve of. The tattoo was going to cost a lot due to the extensive scarring on his shoulder, and take many different sessions, but at the end of the consultation, Hanzo was confident in the tattoo artist’s abilities, and honestly it was the better uses for the money he had saved up from when he left the clan all those decades ago.

The process was also slow. Every month or two Hanzo and Genji would take a day off, go into town and the two of them, and the artist just talked about anything and everything for a few hours as he got the scar covered up with dark ink. Each time they left Hanzo was happy with what he saw on his shoulder, and despite keeping a bandage over it in order to hide it from Jesse, he was more confident in his appearance.

About three months into the tattoo he started wearing tank-tops again. There were a few people who asked about the bandage, but he played it off as a training accident from when he and Genji were together which his brother was happy to help cover for. It also provided ample opportunity for Genji to make outlandish stories on how Hanzo kept getting injured in the same spot.

After about six months, the artist finally declared his tattoo done, and if you ran your hands over the skin, yes you could feel the raised edges of the brand, but appearance wise, it was hidden. When Hanzo saw it in the mirror he smiled and chuckled. He was stupidly happy with the results and the artist as happy for him. He almost immediately turned around and hugged the artist.

“Call me and tell me how he likes it,” they had told him. Hanzo paused, he never told the artist about Jesse.

“How did you-“

The artist shrugged as they wrapped their work, so it wouldn’t smear. “The way you and your brother talk about this ‘Jesse’ or ‘McCree’ character. Your face lights up in a certain way, and with a mark like that, you don’t want just anything covering it up. You want something that brings the feelings completely opposite as the ones the original gave ya.” They paused and offered Hanzo a smile. “An’ the only thing I can think of, is love.”

Hanzo chuckled and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yes. It is. Jesse and I have been dating for a year and a half now, we got engaged over Christmas, and…” he looked at his reflection again, admiring the tattoo once more. “I wouldn’t want anything else covering the indentured period of my life that brings me nothing but pain.”

“Seems like you two are gonna last a while.”

“If they don’t I’ll kill them both,” Genji yelled from the waiting room. He opted to wait until the tattoo was done to see it during this session. “Jesse is my best friend, and Hanzo is my brother. So, if anyone’s heart is broken they have me to deal with.”

“Don’t we already?”

“I mean in the cyborg ninja way, not the annoying little brother way.”

“Oh? So there’s a difference?”

“Aniki! No fair.” The artist chuckled and patted Hanzo’s right shoulder.

“Alright lets get you to pay, and get you out of here.”

“Once again, thank you.” Hanzo bowed his head.

“Don’t mention it. Not the first time I’ve covered a nasty scar.”

\---

Genji was unsettled, he kept checking the entrance to the mess hall every couple of seconds waiting for Hanzo to show up. It was weekly poker night, and there was a plan that had to take place at just the right time. Jesse was starting to get to the point to where the alcohol was starting to affect his judgement. Not toward the cards, but toward the stakes. Genji honestly didn’t think that Jesse could actually be drunk enough to actually lose at poker as long as Hanzo wasn’t playing that is.

“Genji, whatcha lookin’ for?” Jesse asked as he dealt the next hand. Genji didn’t look at the cards and simply added a bet into the pot.

“Hanzo. He normally doesn’t miss a chance to put you in your place at cards,” Genji said with a smirk, still not even looking at his hand, instead glancing at the face cards on the table and bit the inside of his cheek. He knew Jesse, and he knew that he knew how to count cards, but Genji was also a pretty good counter himself.

“Alright that was before I knew how good he was at this an’ he cheated.”

“It isn’t cheating Jesse. It was taking a notice that you couldn’t help but to be checking him out. You really aren’t as smooth as you think you are.”

Jesse pouted and crossed his arms as Genji folded, leaning back and watch the rest of the game played out.

“How about we make this a bit more interesting?” came Hanzo’s voice as he sat down next to Genji, the opposite of McCree. Genji scoffed and shook his head at the tight-fitting v-neck Hanzo was wearing as he crossed his arms under him. Jesse passed the deck to his left and raised an eyebrow.

“How so?”

“A small wager between me and you cowboy. Everyone else plays normal, but between me and you, whoever loses this hand, strips off an article of the other’s choosing.” Hana groaned and stood up.

“Nope, not in the mood for drunk old man goo-goo eyes.” She held up her hands in surrender and took her wine cooler and walked off to join Lucio where ever he was. McCree, not one to back down from a challenge easily, chuckled and nodded.

“You’re on archer.”

At this point Reinhardt was done shuffling and dealt everyone out. The two of them played as they always did. Hanzo had an air of calmness around him, he played as if he didn’t care. That the cards were more of a bore to him where McCree was nothing but confidence. Every now and again they’d lock eyes, and both would smirk, thinking that the other had the upper hand.

A card was thrown on the table, and Hanzo folded. “Why don’t ya let your hair down Darlin’?” McCree asked deciding to play it tame at first. A smirk was on his face as he tipped his hat. Hanzo rolled his eyes and pulled the ribbon out of his hair and casually flung it into the pot. Genji ended up winning that hand as Hanzo was leaned back in his chair tapping his fingers on the bend of his elbow.

The brothers used to go out gambling every now and again. They had a system that took a while for the rest of the table to realize what was happening before it was too late. Jesse knew some of their tactic, a few of the messages the brothers had in a series of arm taps, or foot taps, or shifting of the drinks, but this one was one they hardly used.

_Make the pot huge._

This one only worked for games such as this. Where the deck traveled around the table. Genji calmly took the deck from the Crusader and started shuffling, looking around the table as he put all the cards in a stack and divided them again. Everyone was going to have a similar hand in order for this to work, and the cards were going to have to be good. Genji tapped the deck on the table.

_Winner?_

Hanzo tucked his hair out of his face.

_McCree_

McCree raised an eyebrow, recognizing the signs the two just exchanged. Hanzo merely smirked as Genji started passing out the cards.

Sure enough, no one folded, each thinking they had a straight in their hand, and they were right. Everyone did. But only one had a straight flush, and that man was Jesse McCree.

“Say darlin’ you sure you only want to take one item off? With this pot I think a man deserves more.” Hanzo looked up as if he hadn’t noticed the pot. He hummed in fake thought.

“I think you will be happy with what the result is.”

“Oh? Countin’ cards with Genji?”

“Perhaps, but I wanted to make this win feel all the more special.” Hanzo smirked as he flipped his cards over, everyone else doing the same. Sure, enough Jesse won. “Now before you pout at not being able to make me strip in front of everyone, I do have something to show you.” Jesse raised an eyebrow and waited as Hanzo stood up and took off his shirt, gently tossing it aside.

“Darlin…”Hanzo smiled as Jesse stood up and walked around the table.

His fingers were light and delicate as they traced around the outlines of the tattoo, and again around the raised skin of the scar. There were places where it wasn’t perfect, and in all honesty that fit the tattoo and what it stood for. There were lines that smeared a little, the coloring was a little splotchy at places, especially where the brand was,. It was recognizable, but it wasn’t the prettiest.

No one was perfect, least of all Jesse McCree and Hanzo Shimada, but the chapter of his life living in the pure bliss of happiness was more fulfilling and worth remembering than the years of sadness and stress from the Shimada clan.

“Hanzo, you didn’ have’ta…I mean…holy shit Han, why? It looks great, nothin’ like your other ink but why would you get something like this to accompany that?”

“Because Jesse, I’d rather stand in the mirror and see this, imperfections and all than the mark the clan forced upon me. I am so much happier with you, and if I am going to go forth with the rest of our time together with you by my side, I want to see both sides of my life. Yes, I was a yakuza prince, but I am also a vigilante who is paying for his sins, I just have a hard time sometimes.”

Jesse pulled Hanzo into a hug and gently kissed him.

The next week whenever Hanzo was seen around base, he had a well-fitting tank top on, and he had never looked happier stopping in front of a mirror to stop and admire the two tattoos that made him who he was.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I am sorry if there are any mistakes, I edited this in a car, and I am too exhausted to look it over again because I was in a wedding today. I wrote this as a celebration of me getting out of school for the semester as I am in between 2 big projects that won't see the light of day until August. 
> 
> Okay, I know his hands are backwards, but I am too tired to fix this. 
> 
> If you want to follow me more, and see all my ramblings, wips, and stuff you can follow me on [ my art blog,](http://www.caliginous-arts.tumblr.com)


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